– More worried than ever – VG

“Donald Trump is the most important Republican in the party, and if McConell doesn’t understand that, he has missed a lot,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News Wednesday night.

The statement comes after Donald Trump attacked McConnell, who has criticized him for his role before the violent assault on Congress in Washington DC on January 6.

– The Republican Party will never be respected or strongly respected with political “leaders” like Sen. Mitch McConnell at the helm, Trump said, among other things, calling the senator a “surly and grumpy gamp.”

Read more here: Trump rages at McConnell

Graham, who is one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, says he is concerned about the disagreement between the two party leaders. He describes McConnell as crucial to several of Trump’s victories in the past four years, as a breakthrough for major tax cuts and the inauguration of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

– McConnell did a little job with Donald Trump. Now they are on each other’s throats, and I am more concerned about 2022 than ever.

The fight for the future of the party

After losing their majority in the Senate, Republicans now look forward to the next congressional elections in 2022. This is about 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the total 100 seats in the Senate.

Party members strongly disagree on what place Donald Trump should have in this job.

Trump supporters like Graham are absolutely convinced that they need the former team president to be able to get a majority in the next election.

The party’s powerful leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is much more lukewarm. He has said, among other things, that he will intervene if he believes Trump-backed candidates are not eligible enough, and he has also said that he believes Trump can still be prosecuted as a private person after the attack on Congress.

McConnell voted to acquit Trump in the Supreme Court case because he thought it was unconstitutional to convict a president who had already resigned.

For Fox News, Graham says he is not seeking to create a discussion with McConnell, who he believes shares his political views. He still points to the party’s leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, who has gone public and said he wants Trump’s help.

“Kevin McCarthy, who heads the House of Representatives for Republicans, has chosen a different approach for President Trump, and I advise McConnell to do the same,” Graham said.

Trump also does not completely escape criticism from his close supporter, who refers to an opinion poll that shows that the majority of the population in the United States would support a conviction in the Supreme Court case.

– You are the hope and the future of the Conservatives, Mr. President, but we must make some changes to win back the White House in 2024 and obtain a Republican majority in the Senate and House of Representatives in 2022. I think the Democrats are doing it. Anything they can to help us, we just have to help ourselves, says Graham.

– I think I should be a little careful

The South Carolina senator has the support of his Senate colleague Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Shortly before Trump came out with his attack on McConnell, he told Politico that he does not believe the Senate leader is speaking for the majority when criticizing Trump.

– I think you should be a little careful. You know, when I say something, I’m actually trying to think what it will be like for the party.

Despite allegations of voter fraud, the assault on Congress, and the ensuing Supreme Court case, Trump still has strong control over large sections of the Republican Party and its constituency.

Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not rule out running for president in the 2024 presidential election, predicted earlier this week a fierce battle for the party’s soul, writes the Washington Post.

He has criticized Donald Trump several times before.

“Many Republicans are furious, but they don’t have the courage to stand up to Trump because they fear being reprimanded or losing their careers,” he told NBC earlier this week.

Several of the seven Republicans who voted to overthrow the former president in the Supreme Court case have already noted the consequences of breaking with the majority.

Senators Bill Cassidy and Richard Burr have received official reprimands from their own in their home states of Louisiana and North Carolina, while Pat Toomey and Ben Sasse have come under fire in their home states of Pennsylvania and Nebraska.

Adam Kerzinger, who sits in the House of Representatives, told the New York Times that he has been ostracized by his own family after he voted to put Trump on trial when the case was heard in his chamber.